Broken Soul Mended
by CarlieD
Summary: The story of Jasper and Alice’s relationship. From that fateful day in the diner in 1948, it was a story about how a broken soul was mended, and about how impossible it seemed that two people could fit so perfectly together. Rating may change
1. Pennsylvania, 1948

**Broken Soul Mended**

_The story of Jasper and Alice's relationship. From the very start of that fateful day in the Philadelphia diner in 1948, it was a story about how a broken soul was mended, and about how impossible it seemed that two people could fit so perfectly together._

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Alice or Jasper, nor any of our beloved Cullens/Hales.

** NOTE: The first part of this chapter is adapted from Jasper and Alice's retelling of their first encounter in chapter 13 of _Eclipse_, "Newborn", pages 301-302. **

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Pennsylvania, 1948

She was a welcome breath of fresh air – a happy, carefree presence in the middle of a chaotic world, cheer that pierced through the misty veil of depression that had plagued him since he'd left Peter and Charlotte behind in Iowa.

He knew it was a woman – he'd never known a man with such a sunny disposition. It was a woman and not a girl, because the feelings she exuded were too complex, too… adult for a child.

Jasper had barely begun to look around, searching for the source of his relief, before a petite young woman jumped down off a high stool at the counter and he knew, he just _knew_, that she was the one responsible.

Her eyes were a deep gold, darker than any normal human being's eyes should have been. She was smiling as she advanced towards him, eyes fixed onto his with a faint, unidentifiable emotion in them. "You've kept me waiting a long time," she said when she'd finally reached him, waiting in front of him expectantly.

She was expecting him?, Jasper wondered, even as he bowed his head instinctively and murmured, "I'm sorry, ma'am." His mother had taught him manners, even if the lessons had passed a century ago.

Without skipping a beat, she held out her hand and before Jasper had even paused to think about it, he had taken it, recognizing the familiar touch of an immortal's skin on his own – not warm, not cold, but comfortable. She was one of them, and yet he'd never seen one like her, with the strange colour of her eyes, with her happiness, with the way she smiled at him, though she didn't seem to be gathering information – these Yankees weren't as concerned with territory occupation as they were back home. He didn't understand who she was or what she wanted.

"Come, Jasper," she said softly, and he didn't even think to ask how she knew who he was. "Come with me. We need to find them."

And at this point, it was all just so ridiculously confusing and crazy that Jasper just let her pull him back out into the pouring rain, out of the diner with all the humans' pressing concern and worry and fright and into the simple relief of her presence.

"I didn't think you were ever going to show up," she told him as they reached the city limits. "I'm Alice."

"How did you –" Jasper started to ask, when she laughed and twirled around, still holding onto his hand. Surprised, Jasper automatically moved to let her make a full circle, amazed at how natural it seemed to him to have her dancing in his arms.

Alice laughed again, pausing to look at him again. "I can see things most people can't, Jasper. I get visions of the future. When I first woke up, probably about, oh, twenty or so years ago, I guess, the first thing I saw was your face and I just knew your name. I don't know anything about how I got this way, or what my life was like before. I just know what's happening now, and what's going to happen later."

"Your eyes…" Jasper asked, drawing a wondrous thumb beneath her eyes, still trying to figure out how they could be any other colour than crimson. It didn't make _sense_…

"Yes, I know, I haven't hunted in a while," Alice admitted. "I don't understand, though, why are my eyes so interesting to you?" She looked up questioningly, and Jasper could sense the slight anxiety and confusion in her emotions. "Wait… I don't understand, why are your eyes red? The others aren't…" She paused. "I think… maybe it's our diet that makes it different. I don't drink human blood," she explained, a frown still creasing her features. "I live off animal blood."

"Why?" Jasper asked without thinking – was this the answer to his weariness? Was it really as simple as feeding not on humans, but on animals? He had had no idea that it was even possible – were there others who survived this way – those who weren't interested in battles and killing humans in order to live this bloody half-life?

Alice paused a second, worry creeping into her emotions and her voice as she said uncertainly, "Because the Cullens do. And I don't think it would go over very well with them if I showed up and I wasn't – well…"

"The Cullens?" Jasper asked again, somehow feeling like the stupidest vampire on the planet as his mind raced with the thousands of possibilities – if he could somehow track down these Cullens, if he could somehow get the answers he was so desperate for…

"We'll find them, Jasper," Alice told him reassuringly. "I've seen it. I know that much."

"But who are the Cullens?" Jasper repeated, instinctively settling her lithe body back against his as they sank down to the wet ground. It was absolutely astounding how very little time it took for her to become a part of him, before he was naturally gravitating around her, before the need to keep her close became more than a desire for calm.

Briefly, he recalled Maria, not many years ago, mention something about a large coven up in the North, one that she'd heard were different from the rest of their kind, though in what way, she wasn't certain. She had been worried that they might try to come and take over their territory.

"The Cullens are a family of our kind," Alice replied, resting her head back against his shoulder. "Not so much a coven as a family. They're more tightly bound together than most covens. But they're quite a large coven, I think. There's five. Two are still relatively new, only a decade or so old. Two about as old to this life as I am, and one old one. Centuries old. The old one created all of them."

"Five relatively immature vampires…" Jasper muttered in astonishment – unheard of numbers, even in the South. The closest he could think of would be the Volturi themselves… "And they haven't killed each other off."

"No," Alice confirmed. "They think of each other as relatives, a true family."

"Tell me what you know about these Cullens," Jasper said.

"In time…" Alice answered. "First, I think I'd like to know more about _you_. You see, I know your name and your face," she began, turning into him. Her lips grazed against his ice skin, sending slight shivers across his body as she continued her one-sided conversation. "I know who we'll find together, I know that wherever you are, I'll be. But I don't know who you _are_." She sighed, drawing her fingers lightly across the back of his hand. "So, Jasper?"

"You know, Alice," Jasper replied, tracing the perfect outlines of her face. "I think I'm more concerned with finding out who _you_ are." Watching her eyes as they searched his face, he continued, uncertainly, "I mean, I've lived for a hundred years and I have never, _never_ met somebody who – who…" He sighed. "I don't even have the words." He paused, leaning in without a second thought as he touched his lips to hers.

"Don't worry, Jasper," she said softly, her hands sliding up around his neck and his face. "I'm safe. I'm not here to hurt you." She returned his kiss lightly. "Come here."

*~*~*

The rain had stopped, the sun beginning to rise again. For the first time in a long while, Jasper felt no need to move, no need to hide. Maybe because they were far enough into the flooded forest that no human would dare come looking, maybe because he still couldn't hear the starting of the workday traffic on the outskirts of Philadelphia, maybe because he just didn't want to move and break the comfortable silence which had fallen between them many hours before.

The anxiety, confusion and concern had left her long ago, he noticed again as he shifted to look at her. "Alice?" he asked softly. Her dark golden eyes, still so strange to him, were still watching him with the same quiet confidence.

"They're wandering again," Alice whispered, nestling in closer to him. "I don't think I can find out where they're going before they move again." The slight tremble in her voice gave way to the twinge of anxiety again.

Instinctively, Jasper tried to calm her, much like the way he had controlled the armies of newborns back home. He didn't want her upset, he wanted her happy and sunny. He needed to calm _her_, so that she could calm _him_.

"What did you do?" she asked suddenly, starting to sit up.

"I… I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I can influence the emotions in an area. You were anxious, so I was trying to calm you. Did it not work?"

"Oh," she replied, settling back down. Sighing, she traced a light finger over the rippled scar tissue on his chest. "What happened to you?"

Jasper didn't speak for a second, concentrating only on the sensation of her fingers on his skin. Finally, he answered, "Newborns."

"Newborn – oh." Alice stopped. "Um, Jasper, we need to move," she said after a moment, sitting up and pulling her wet clothes back on. "There's a group of –" She froze when Jasper did the same, his pupils constricting and springing to his feet as the sweet scent of human blood drifted towards them. "Jasper, no. Jasper…" Her bell-like voice – so much more entrancing than Maria's – took on a sharp edge at that moment and Jasper hesitated, torn between the anger in her voice and the burning, intolerable thirst in his throat. It had been weeks, maybe even a month since he'd last broken down – it was just too irresistible to do anything but attack.

The sounds of a group of teenage boys tromping through the wet undergrowth in the woods broke through just then, and Jasper instinctively crouched, ready to spring the moment they came within his sights.

The weight of Alice's body rattled his concentration for a moment – she had jumped onto his back. "Listen to me, Jasper," she whispered frantically into his ear. "You don't need to live like this. You don't need to kill innocent people to make it stop."

"But I can't stop," he growled through his teeth.

"Yes, you can," she contradicted, smoothing back curls from his face as she kept up the steady stream of talk in an effort to distract him. "You can stop. Listen to me. I know how hard it is. I know it's burning, burning unbearably. It burns for me, too. It gets harder to resist the thirstier we are. But just stop thinking about it. Stop."

"Alice, this is who I am," he spat, still raging the vicious battle between his instinct to feed and his desire not to make her upset. "This is what I was trained to do."

"No, it's not," she repeated, "I can see the future, remember, Jasper? And I _know_ you can do this." The anger that was quickly building was enough to throw him off the hunt for a fraction of a second. "Look at _me_. Focus on me," she continued fiercely. "Not on them. On me."

He hesitated, the squelching of the boys' boots in the mud getting closer and closer with every passing second. The tantalizing scent wafted over, carried by the wind and he tensed once more. "Alice –"

"I will be very, _very_ angry if you don't control yourself," Alice growled threateningly. "And I will _leave_."

That was the final straw for Jasper, as panic finally overpowered thirst. No. She couldn't leave. It was ridiculous – he hadn't even known her 24 hours, and what were mere hours to immortals? But somehow she had become a part of him, a reason to keep himself going and he would quite possibly fall to the ground, writhing in agony if she was anything but happy.

Stopping his breathing in order to avoid the scent of the human boys, who had changed direction and were heading due east once more, Jasper managed to spit out, "Then we had better go hunting, Alice, _now_, for some poor unfortunate non-sentient creatures. I will _not_ be able to stop again."

In a flash, Alice had dropped from his back, kissing his neck as her mood took an immediate swing for happiness – delight, even. "Thank you, Jasper," she chirped.

And as she cheerfully pulled him off into the woods in search of deer, he knew that his existence – for what he had, he could hardly call a _life_ – would never be the same. It had been forever changed.


	2. New Mexico, 1948

**_New Mexico, 1948_**

"What if we went further north again?" Alice sighed unhappily, twitching aside the curtain of their small apartment to scowl at the rising sun. "They're not here anymore, and we can't go out most of the time around here."

Jasper looked up from the newspaper, shaking his head at the human interpretation of what looked like another attack on Monterrey – probably by Jaime, Maria's most fierce opponent, or by Maria herself. Who knew who actually controlled the city at this moment? "They're so _blind_…" he muttered, before he returned his attention to his unhappy mate. "I'm sorry, Alice, what was that?"

She glowered at him momentarily, her irritation evaporating into disappointment the second he held out his hand, apology in his eyes – he hoped, at least. Sighing again, she dropped into his lap. "You don't want this," she said simply, her gaze holding steady with his. If it were physically possible, he was certain she would have tears in her eyes.

He closed his eyes, acutely aware that there was a flare of pain in her emotions every time she looked at him, her golden eyes seeing the scarlet in his – the recent result of a single moment of weakness. She had been away from him, off on another one of her mysterious 'Cullen quests', as he'd taken to calling them over the last few months with Alice. He had gone hunting – completely intending to stick to this strange new diet, in search of coyotes. And then there had been those two young adults, out in the desert, alone on a cloudless night with a full moon… and they hadn't stood a chance.

He had stayed away for almost a full week, taking shelter in the caves of the rock formations, too ashamed and too disgusted with himself to face her. For a second, a fraction of a second, he'd decided to walk away and the panic that rose within him quickly put an end to that thought. No. She was too tightly wound into every facet of himself to ever leave her.

So he'd come crawling back to her one stormy morning, furious with himself when he felt the waves of fear, anger, disappointment, worry flooding the apartment. He'd hurt her, and it was killing him to know that.

"_Don't you _ever_ do that again,"_ she had growled at him, just before she'd thrown herself into his arms. _"You listen to me – I don't expect you to be perfect. I know that we're both going to slip up on occasion. But don't you _dare_ ever think about leaving me again, and _definitely _not for a mistake like that, Jasper!"_

It had taken a long time to make all the negative emotion she'd bottled up in that week dissipate, and even now he'd failed so far in bringing back the sun to her smile. She'd shake her head, she'd laugh, she'd kiss him, she'd reassure him again that she knew he was capable of doing it, and she knew that he wouldn't slip up again anytime soon.

But sometimes he wondered if she really could see the future, or if she just pretended to in order to give him hope that maybe he _could_ do this.

"No, Alice, of course I do," he said immediately. Laying a kiss on her neck, Jasper nestled her snugly into his arms. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, darling, I'm sorry –"

"Stop apologizing," she murmured into his throat. "I know you didn't mean to do it. I think it's time to move on from here. There's too little wildlife in the area, and I don't want _either_ of us ever getting that thirsty again." She was referring, of course, to their disastrous attempt to safeguard the New Mexico animal life from extinction. They would go hunt only when the thirst threatened to consume them – part of the trigger for his attack that horrible night.

"So where have they gone now?" Jasper asked with a slight teasing tone to his voice – this was almost like a tracking game to her. "And are we going to catch them this time, or do I get you all to myself for a little while longer?" he added playfully, smiling as she laughed and slid her arms around his neck to kiss him.

*~*~*

"So you never did tell me all you know about these mysterious Cullens," Jasper said, propping himself up on his elbows above her, watching her sparkling eyes as she sighed again, a sigh of happiness this time.

Her fingernails, what little she had of them, traced light patterns on the hard skin of his back as she studied him for a moment. "You really want to know?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied, ducking down to nuzzle her cheek with his nose. "What _do_ you know?" he continued, kissing along her jawline.

"All right, stop distracting me!" Alice laughed. "Stop it, or I'm not going to tell you."

"I can wait," Jasper murmured. "I have eternity to wait. And so do you, and so do they." He kissed her, laughing as she huffed with impatience. The tracing on his back stopped, and one index finger started tapping out a staccato rhythm. It was so amusing to get her impatient. "All right, all right, I'm stopping," he finally said, dropping down beside her. "So tell me again how many there are in this coven-family."

"There's five right now," Alice replied. "The leader is named Carlisle."

"That's the old one, right?" Jasper asked, suddenly eager to prove that he _had_ been listening and that it really was as important to him as it was to her. "The one who created all the others?"

"That's right," she answered, and the delight that emanated from her confirmed that his current strategy was working. "He's a doctor. That's mostly how he found the rest of them. Except for Rosalie and Emmett."

"He used to be with the Volturi," Jasper prompted, still greatly respecting any man or woman who had been part of the Volturi. This Carlisle was by far the most curious of these Cullens to Jasper. Why would he have left the Volturi? Had he been banished – surely not, the Volturi didn't deal with banishment.

"Right," Alice confirmed. "He left them about a century ago; actually, probably about the time _you_ were changed. They were too eager to get him to drink human blood."

"And his mate?" Jasper asked.

"His _wife_," Alice corrected, "and we're going to do that too, one of these days," she added confidently, curling up happily against his side.

"What, get married?" Jasper teased, tracing curving lines across her back. "Two vampires, married by the priest? How scandalous." How could she have possibly known that he had decided that very thing himself just the other day?

"Mm-hmm," Alice said with a nod.

"So back to Carlisle and Esme," Jasper reminded her, kissing her nose lightly.

"Oh, yes, so Esme was his second change – Edward was his first – and she…" Alice paused impatiently again as Jasper cut off her sentence with a kiss. "Jasper Whitlock, don't make me –" she threatened, cutting him off before he could continue. "Esme thinks of the younger ones as children. She really is the mother figure to Carlisle's father figure. Edward… Edward is the youngest, in terms of human years, but the oldest of the young ones."

"So he's the lone one in the coven – I mean, family?" Jasper asked.

"Yes, he hasn't found anybody," Alice replied. "Carlisle changed Rosalie, hoping that she would become that to him. But Edward just wasn't interested, and two years later, Rosalie found Emmett."

"While he was still human," Jasper said. "Dying in the woods after a bear attacked him."

"That's right. She carried him all the way back to where they were living, because she wanted to save him, but she didn't want to kill him. Carlisle said no at first, he didn't want to change any more humans, he didn't want to finish any more lives."

"But she begged him," he continued for her, still in awe at the self-restraint that must've taken this Rosalie – barely more than a newborn, with a human's blood spilling over her… "So he did." This whole coven baffled him. They really did live as though they were playing at being human – the love, the compassion, the relational dynamics. And yet for all these mad actions and unlikely events, they had remained intact. Vampires who became doctors (he could all too well imagine the burning in Carlisle's throat every time he went to work), newborns who found dying humans in the woods and somehow didn't immediately begin to feed, vampires with _consciences_…

"I like Emmett," she confided happily, nestling back down against his side again, her head resting in the hollow of his neck. "It's he has no secrets. What you see is what really is, and he's always cheerful."

"You've never met Emmett," Jasper laughed, kissing her again. A ray of sunlight broke through the crack in the curtains at that precise moment, and Jasper was momentarily distracted by the glittering of Alice's skin.

"I think you're going to like him too, Jazz," she continued, her eyes catching his own.

Jasper didn't bother correcting her idyllic vision of the future. Yes, the Cullens intrigued him. Yes, the concept of a quiet, peaceful existence – one that didn't require killing innocent people – was enticing. But he just worried that she was making them into some sort of coven of perfect gods. Real people – human or otherwise – were not that good. There was bound to be some sort of discord, some type of disagreement or resentment. And from what she'd told him of their leader, it seemed like Carlisle Cullen had declared his coven complete.

Would she be able to recover when (though 'if' seemed more likely at this point) they caught up with this coven, only to be turned away? Practically her entire existence had been thrown into this chase. She had already become attached to these fleeting, ephemeral visions – visions he still wasn't entirely convinced were completely accurate.

A bubble of panic began manifesting itself as his mind ran off in the direction of 'worst-case scenario', imagining the pyres of agony she was going to make him roast on when she was destroyed by this coven's rejection. The longer he was with her, the harder it was for him to control his own state of mind to better manipulate the area around him – if she were distraught enough, he wouldn't be able to keep himself calm enough to calm her.

"Jazz," she repeated, and he realized with a start that she'd been trying to catch his attention for some time now. "What are you thinking?" She balanced herself by her arm on his chest, eyes trying to dig deep enough into his to figure out his thoughts.

It was times like this he was immeasurably glad she had clairvoyance and not telepathy.

"Oh," he started to answer, reaching to cup her chin in his hand, "nothing much."

*~*~*

The town had fallen under the darkness of a moonless night when they left. Though there were still a few people out wandering the streets, for the most part, it was deserted.

"So, Alice, where to?" Jasper asked quietly, watching the occasional passerby with slight trepidation.

"I don't know," Alice sighed, still looking out the window of their car wistfully. The last thing she'd seen of her Cullens, they'd had to leave their current residence again, had become nomadic for a while. It was upsetting her.

Jasper reached out and took her hand into his as he started driving. They'd go north again. She'd be happier up north. Besides, her Cullens tended to stay in the northern states. Probably for good reason, the South was hardly the place for peaceful existence. "We'll find them, Lissy, don't worry," he murmured.

She nodded distractedly, her hand tightening around his. "Thank you, Jazz," she said softly.

He smiled at her, already feeling relief from her anxiety. "Love you, sweet."


	3. Wisconsin, 1949

**_Wisconsin, 1949_**

God, if this had been the secret all along to making her deliriously happy, he'd have done this last year in Pennsylvania.

She laughed again, eyes sparkling as she twirled around again, her white dress flaring out and wrapping again around her legs. "Did you see the look on the justice's assistant's face?" she asked.

"No," Jasper replied honestly. "I was too concerned with the vision of beauty in front of me. Speaking of which, what was irritating you about halfway through?"

"Oh, I caught the justice looking me over," Alice replied dismissively. "I couldn't figure out how to get him to stop without killing him, so…"

He had to laugh. She had only noticed one? "Lissy, every man who's been within eyeshot of you today has been looking you over." Pulling her into his arms, he continued, "You look absolutely breathtaking. Even more breathtaking than usual, actually." He kissed her. "I've had trouble keeping myself from massacring every man who looked at you today. 52 men, in fact. Plus collateral damage. It would've been a record, even for me."

Alice smiled again and continued her graceful spins, still holding onto his hand. "Jazz, thank you," she said, pausing in her pirouettes to look at him. He just laughed and spun her around again.

"Just dance, my Lissy."

*~*~*

Jasper was on his feet in a flash when he heard the door to the apartment opening. His first immediate thought was that Maria had come for him. Glancing behind him, he saw Alice still deeply absorbed in another one of her lengthy visions – she hadn't even reacted to the sound of the intrusion.

Taking a deep breath to catch the scent, he relaxed slightly – Peter and Charlotte. They must've been in the area, caught wind of him.

"No," he heard Charlotte say. "No, this can't be right. Why in the world would Jasper be here? You must've tracked him wrong, Peter…"

"I did not 'track him wrong', Charlotte."

"He didn't," Jasper called softly, not wanting to disturb Alice. Leaving the bedroom, and Alice sitting motionless on the bed, he joined his old companions out in the living room. "Hello, Peter. Charlotte, good to see you again."

"What the hell happened to you?" Peter asked bluntly, staring at him.

"What?" Jasper asked, momentarily confused.

"Your _eyes_, Jasper. They're gold," Charlotte said, a frown crossing her face as she looked at him.

"Oh, yes, that," Jasper said. "I've discovered a new diet."

"What, _dirt_?" Peter demanded. "It's _unnatural_, Jasper. Our eyes aren't supposed to be gold. What are you _drinking_, that it's turned your eyes like that?! And how in the world did you come across it in the first place?"

"Oh, yes, Peter, because vampires are perfectly _natural_," Charlotte scoffed.

"You _know_ what I mean."

"I'm drinking the blood of animals, Peter," Jasper said as he took in his old companions' ragged appearance. "Your own diet scarce out in the Arctic wilderness? What are you doing here, anyway?"

"_Why_?" Peter asked incredulously, still staring at Jasper in disbelief. "_Why _in the world are you drinking _animal blood_ when you're surrounded by all these perfectly good humans? I can see it if you're desperate, if you're in the backside of nowhere with no humans around…"

"Peter, answer the question."

"We were in the area," Charlotte spoke up, "when we caught wind of your scent. Peter misses you, incredibly enough. He was hoping maybe you'd gotten over whatever your problem was and that you were ready to come back." She paused, a question crossing her face. "Who else is in here?"

"Jasper," Alice called from the bedroom.

Both Charlotte and Peter turned to stare at him. "Who's _that_?" Peter asked interestedly.

"Jasper!" she called again, a little more tersely. A small wave of anger hit him – maybe he'd spoiled her a little too much, doting on her every beck and call.

"You leave her _alone_, Peter," Jasper warned sharply as he turned back around. "I'll be back. Yes, Alice?" he asked, a slight irritated edge to his voice.

"Hmm, she must really be something," he heard Charlotte murmur to Peter.

"Why are you mad at me?" Alice asked petulantly, twisting around to look at Jasper as he came into the room, waiting at the doorway.

"Because I was in the middle of a conversation, Alice," he replied pointedly. 'And because I was hoping you'd stay quiet for just a while longer so that Peter didn't catch sight of you,' he added in his mind.

"Oh. So I guess I don't need to tell you that there's two vampires coming," she offered apologetically.

Despite himself, Jasper laughed, realizing a fraction of a second too late that the sound had piqued Peter and Charlotte's interest too much. "No, you don't," he said, entering the room. "They came while you were busy watching them come. Are you telling me that you blanked out for five hours for Peter and Charlotte?"

"It was five hours?" Alice asked, smiling radiantly as he leaned down and kissed her. "Seemed like only a few minutes."

"Five hours and twelve minutes, if we're going to be exact." Jasper lifted her up onto her feet within a second. "Come on. I'm sure Charlotte would be thrilled to have another girl around."

"I would be," Charlotte spoke up from behind him. "But first you have to introduce us, Jasper. Where'd all your Civil War era manners go?"

"I left them somewhere in Galveston, alongside my mortality," Jasper said in response. "Alice, Charlotte. Charlotte, Alice."

"Hello," Alice greeted cheerfully, casting a semi-questioning glance behind at Jasper as he settled an arm securely around her waist.

"Hey, what am I?" Peter objected, his face betraying his thoughts as he took in Alice's appearance.

"You're a guy who used to run a brothel. Stop eyeing my wife," Jasper said pointedly.

"Peter!" Charlotte exclaimed, hitting his arm. "Stop it!"

"I'm sorry!" Peter exclaimed defensively, shielding himself from another blow. "Old habits die hard!... Wife, you say?" He took a good, hard look at Alice, taking in the clear amber colouring in her eyes. "Hmm. I figured you probably didn't jump off the bandwagon all by your lonesome self. I assume she's the one responsible…" He grinned when an angry hiss escaped from Jasper's lips. "Calm down, seriously, Jasper. You can't honestly tell me you came up with the idea all by yourself, because last time we saw you, you were going off in search of the nearest fire pit big enough to throw yourself in."

Charlotte shook her head, still looking at Alice. "I only wish Peter jumped as fast as that to _my_ defense," she confided with a smile and a roll of her blood-red eyes. Alice smiled back at her, still safely ensconced in Jasper's arms. When Peter sent her a miffed glare, she laughed. "Don't even bother denying it, Peter. They'd be halfway out the door with me before you'd jump in."

"So does it actually do anything, the animal blood, I mean?" Peter asked. "I mean, does it work any better or any worse than human?"

"Well, I don't know," Alice said quietly, her fingers picking uncertainly at a stray thread on Jasper's sleeve as her eyes went slightly unfocused again.

"She's never tasted human blood," Jasper explained to Peter, tightening his hold in order to better support her weight while she watched her vision.

"Never?" Peter and Charlotte both asked incredulously.

"Never," Jasper confirmed. "There's not a big difference, actually, between drinking the human blood and drinking the animal blood. Doesn't taste nearly as good, though. The animal's a little weaker, but it's not something you'd notice unless you've spent the last century drinking human. I barely notice anymore. Why?"

"Just curiosity," Peter shrugged. "I still think you're absolutely mad. What's going on with her?"

"Alice can see the future," Jasper said by way of explanation. "When she blanks out like this, it typically means she's getting another vision."

"Really?" Charlotte asked interestedly.

"Massachusetts," Alice stated as she came back to reality.

"What about Massachusetts, love?" Jasper murmured into her ear.

"That's where the Cullens went," she explained to him simply. "Massachusetts."

*~*~*

It didn't take Alice and Charlotte long to become good confidantes. Their one disagreement seemed to be their choices in diets: Alice tried to convince Charlotte to try animal blood, Charlotte tried to convince Alice to try human blood.

Jasper put a stop to _that_ negotiation quickly. The last thing he wanted was for his innocent little wife to become a cold-blooded killer.

He and Peter generally got along a little better than they had before Alice, but it wasn't too long – maybe a year – before they were back to blows, especially when it came to Peter's self-control. It was all Alice and Charlotte could do to keep them calm enough to avoid ripping each other apart.

"You couldn't have held off for _five more minutes_?!" Jasper hissed angrily as the four made a quick escape from Lansing. "Five damn minutes, Peter, and we'd have been outside city limits and nobody would've noticed!"

"We can't all be martyrs, Jasper!" Peter threw back viciously. "As if you haven't killed your share of humans in bad places! Or do I need to remind you about San Antonio?"

"Peter!" Charlotte rebuked, Alice barely managing to catch Jasper's arm and pull him back before he attacked. "Enough!"

"Jasper, calm," Alice ordered.

The two young men snarled at each other again, and the two young women looked at each other in exasperation before Charlotte finally said, "This isn't working."

"It's not going to," Alice agreed with a sigh. "We're going to keep heading east for Massachusetts."

"We'll head west," Charlotte returned. "Somewhere. Must be nice, to have a purpose. A destination."

"It is," Alice replied. "Come on, Jasper." She tugged at his arm. "Jas-_per_…" she growled warningly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jasper grumbled.


	4. Massachusetts, 1950

**_Chapter 4: Massachusetts, 1950_**

"We're so _close_, Jasper," Alice whined as she wove her arm through his, noticing how tense he was. "Why are we wasting time here? They could _leave_…"

Jasper sent a glare at a young human man watching Alice in interest, then turned back to her. "Because, Alice, I think we need to discuss some things before we go disrupt people's lives for eternity."

"We can't do it _after_?" she complained.

"Do you see them leaving in the next week?" Jasper asked pointedly, opening the car door for her.

"Well… _no_, but…"

"Then we're fine."

"But _Jasper_…"

*~*~*

"Alice, I'm getting worried about you and this crazy quest," Jasper said softly as they abandoned the car near the Massachusetts border.

"Don't say that," Alice begged. "They're real, I know they are."

"I don't doubt that they _exist_, Alice. I'm just worried that they're not realistic." Finding a quiet place out of sight from the interstate, he sat down, pulling her into his lap. "I think you're seeing what you _want_ to see, Alice. We both know that your visions are somewhat subjective. It's all in the way you interpret it."

"No…"

"What's going to happen when we get there, Alice? Do you think they're going to just let us in?"

Alice looked at him, betrayal in her eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, you know it's true," Jasper said quietly.

"They _will_… they _will_ let us in," Alice insisted, though now her voice held a note of uncertainty in it. "I saw it. They will."

"And maybe they will, maybe they won't," he replied, kissing her lightly. "But either way, Alice, the initial impression isn't going to be good. It's very unnerving, to find out somebody already knows almost everything about you when you don't have a clue who they are. And I'm not going to help matters at all."

"Why?" she asked, frowning at him. "Why would you say that? You're _good_, Jasper, anybody can see that."

He laughed wryly. "No, Alice, _you_ see that, and I have no idea why you didn't notice the scars first the day we met. Everybody else sees them and tries to get me as far away as possible."

"But that doesn't –" she started to protest, when he cut her off.

"I'm not trying to talk you out of it. I'm not changing my mind. I just don't want you completely thrown for a loop when we get there, Lissy. I'm just trying to prepare you."

"Would you stop cutting off my train of thought?" Alice asked impatiently. "I was going to say it doesn't matter. Peter and Charlotte got past it, other people can too."

"Peter and Charlotte owe me their lives," Jasper disagreed. "They had incentive. Your Cullens owe me nothing. There's no reason for them to look any further than the scars."

"You have no faith in yourself, Jazz. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt once in a while," Alice complained, nestling her head against his shoulder. "This isn't the South. People are a little less prone to fighting here, in case you haven't noticed."

"Mmm, I _have_ noticed," Jasper said, kissing her neck. "Less prone to fighting, more prone to judging."

"Jasper Whitlock, your pessimism is depressing," Alice growled.

"My pessimism is well-earned, Alice Whitlock," he replied with a slight edge of teasing in his voice as he lowered her to the ground.

*~*~*

Maybe his warning had struck a chord. Maybe it would've been the natural course. Jasper wasn't sure which it was, but as they slowly approached the Boston area, Alice became more and more pensive, a little more uncertain. She started spending more time in her visions, trying to see what would happen when they got there.

"Ugh!" she shrieked one afternoon, flying out of her vision in a disgusted rage. "Let's just get this _over_ with!"

Jasper couldn't stop the affectionate laugh from escaping. The decisive passion made a change from the wavering uncertainty of the past week. "All right," he said, getting to his feet as she whirled around to glower at him. "I'm coming."

"Emmett and Edward went hunting," she told him with a sigh as she grabbed his hand.

Jasper winced slightly at the word 'hunting'. Yeah, he probably should've done that while she was caught up in her visions. He was getting close to his breaking point, and he wouldn't be able to hold off much longer.

"Can we just go, and deal with it as it comes?" Alice asked softly. "I'm sorry, Jasper, I know you're thirsty. Just a little while longer, please?"

"Whatever you want, Alice," Jasper said indulgently.

"Thank you," she whispered.

*~*~*

Jasper took a deep breath to try and get the lay of the land as they approached the edge of the Cullen property. "Alice, stay back, please," he requested quietly, pulling her behind him.

True to Alice's vision, there were two scents leading off into the woods they had just come from, probably both male (based on the scents, any way – not an exact science). Three more were leading into the house, probably one male, two females.

"Oh, _please_, Jasper…" Alice begged. He smiled and turned around to kiss her briefly.

"No matter what happens, Lissy, I'm here," he whispered to her, just as the front door opened and two women stepped out, their expressions cautious. One blonde man wasn't far behind them.

Alice seemed to forget her anxiety all of a sudden, dashing up to greet them with a bright smile and a delighted cry of "Esme! Rosalie! Carlisle!" before throwing her arms around each of them in turn.

Jasper winced at her familiarity and waited for their reactions to hit.

Confusion. That was the primary emotion. Confusion and a little bit of suspicion. Nothing extraordinary, but mind, they hadn't seen him yet. Even for vampires' vision, this was a little too far to be able to properly see the scars.

"I'm sorry, do we know you?" the blonde girl asked warily as she detached Alice.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, Rosalie, I forgot we haven't _actually_ met," Alice gushed, backing away momentarily. "It just _seems_ like I've known you forever –"

The confusion was still there, but the suspicion was slowly going away – Alice had succeeded in charming them.

"I'm Alice. I can see visions of the future, and I've seen you guys for quite some time now…"

Jasper started to back away into the forest, thinking of maybe just letting Alice have her moment of joy before he came in and ruined it all for her. He'd go hunting. Try and lessen the brutal impact he was going to have on their lives.

He breathed in again, giving himself over to his instincts as he took off in the direction of a delicious scent. Had he been thinking at all, he would've realized that it was too good a scent to be animal.

*~*~*

His feeding was interrupted by the sounds of others coming towards him. Looking up, he realized that the sound of the dead human's final cry had probably attracted some attention.

"Emmett, get a hold on yourself!" somebody's voice shouted. "Think of the lashing Rosalie's going to give you if you mess up again!"

"Grab him before he bolts!" another shouted back, and Jasper instinctively snarled as hands grabbed his arms, tearing the sleeves. The strength of the grip rivaled a newborn, beaten only by the smallest of margins. "Hey, who are you?" it demanded.

Jasper stopped as he came to a disconcerting conclusion. What a way to meet the rest of the Cullens. "Great. Alice is going to kill me," he groaned, barely managing to wrench himself free of his captor and backing away from the lifeless body as quickly as possible.

"Where'd you come from?" the bronze-haired boy asked.

"Down there, somewhere," Jasper answered, gesturing back towards the general direction he'd come from. "I'm not sure, exactly."

"Let's take him back to the house, let Carlisle deal with him," the dark-haired young man who had caught him said. "We can't have him running around on the loose. Look at him!"

"You know, I can hear everything you're saying," Jasper said pointedly, uncomfortably tugging at the ruined sleeves of his shirt. "I'm not deaf. Far from it."

"Probably came from the South," the bronze-haired one continued, ignoring Jasper's comment. "Not many other places somebody would get that amount of scarring."

*~*~*

Alice was waiting anxiously out on the front porch when they arrived. The second that the three boys had cleared the trees, she ran to meet them.

"Oh, Jazz…" she breathed, a flicker of disappointment in her eyes as she put her hands on his face. "Emmett, let him go," she ordered in a slightly peevish voice.

"Uh, I'm sorry, do I know you?" the dark-haired one, who had been gripping Jasper's arms behind his back the entire journey, asked with a frown.

"You don't know her, but she knows you," came the blonde girl's voice. "Who's this?"

"I'm sorry, Alice," Jasper whispered to her softly. "It was a mistake…"

"I know," she said simply. She gave him a slight smile. "I'm just glad you came back right away this time. Emmett!" she added sharply, giving the young man behind Jasper another glare. He still hadn't released Jasper.

"Let him go, Emmett," the bronze-haired one said quietly. "He's not going to run."

"I'm going to take a guess and say that you would be Jasper?" came the voice of the blonde man as he and the red-haired woman joined the group. "Oh," he said warily as golden eyes met crimson.

Jasper hesitated, one arm looping around Alice's shoulder as she tucked herself into it, burying her face into his chest. He could feel the suspicion coming back strong, quickly followed by resolution. His heart fell – he had done it, just as he had suspected. He had killed Alice's dream with his sordid past and his paper-thin self-control. Who was he trying to kid? He was no better than Peter. Peter was better, probably, because he didn't try to deny it.

Well, might as well attempt to make the best of the destruction.

"Yes, I'm Jasper," he replied politely, holding out his free hand to the man. "Am I right in assuming that you're Carlisle?" he asked, cringing only the slightest bit as he saw him take in the scars covering his arm.

The blonde man nodded, a frown crossing his face. "May I ask where you come from, Jasper?" he asked quietly, still examining the scars.

Alice flinched in his hold and Jasper kissed the top of her head, rubbing her arm soothingly as he gave her little waves of comfort. He would take the interrogation like a man. He wouldn't be the cause of any more pain in her life.

"Texas, originally," Jasper replied quietly. "The southern states and northern Mexico for the better part of a century. The northern states more recently."

Carlisle nodded wordlessly, releasing Jasper's hand. "The wars?"

Jasper nodded in return. "Yes, sir. Second-in-command of an army for 81 years. Major in the Confederate Army before that." As Alice nestled closer, pressing her cheek against his chest, he took a deep breath to calm himself. "I left… five years ago."

He could almost hear everybody thinking it: _'That's not a very long time. Not long at all…'_

"Would you excuse us a moment?" Carlisle requested simply, looking back at Edward and Emmett. The Cullens disappeared back into the house, and he heard Edward asking, _"Why is all my stuff in the garage?"_

Jasper chuckled slightly as he looked at Alice. "Lissy?"

"That room had the best view," Alice replied with a slight shrug, voice trembling.

"Listen, Lissy," he said softly, pulling her away from him for a moment to look into her eyes. "I have a feeling I know what they're going to come out and say."

"I know," she whispered, wrapping her hands around his wrists as he put a hand on her cheek.

"You can stay, you know," he murmured, kissing her. "You don't have to leave just because of me." He kissed her again, closing his eyes as he breathed in the intoxicating allure of her scent. God, it would be hell to give her up. "They like you. Doesn't take a genius to see that."

Alice wound her arms around his neck. "I'm not going anywhere without you, Jazz," she murmured back, resting her forehead against his. "Remember what you promised in New Mexico?" she continued. "You promised never to leave me…"

"I wouldn't leave, if you didn't want me to," he told her. "I would stay around. I just wouldn't be _here_."

"That's not good enough," she whispered.

"I would follow you," he continued persistently, stroking her hair. "I'll follow you until the end of time, Lissy, if that's what you want."

She sighed, head falling to his shoulder. "That's not good enough," she repeated.

"You could run away every once in a while," he offered with a slight, teasing edge to his voice. "Be the good girl running away with her bad-influence boyfriend, and come back when you realized that he's bad for you, and you're not going to change who he is."

"Jasper, if you insist on beating yourself up and demeaning yourself at every step of the road…" she started to say warningly. "I don't want you to _follow_ me. I want you to be _with_ me. I want you to _live_ with me, Jasper, because I am _not_ going to keep you hidden away like you're something to be ashamed of!"

He smiled, closing his lips around hers. "Oh, Alice, you're far too good for the likes of me," he murmured, nuzzling her cheek affectionately as he sensed the little shots of delight emanating from her. "I love you, sweetheart."

"Every day of forever?" Alice asked teasingly.

"Every day of forever, love, I promise," he replied, just as the Cullens came back out.


	5. Alberta, 1950

**Chapter 5: Alberta, 1950**

He had never seen her so happy before in their entire history. Her eyes sparkled, her smile could have lit the entire room, her laughter reminded him of much happier days as a little boy playing outside.

Jasper was watching her work on a new dress design with Rosalie one overcast winter's day, the two young women laughing together in the living room as he kept guard nearby. He was attempting to mask his 'overprotectiveness', as Alice so quaintly put it, with a book, half-heartedly reading in between glances at his beautiful wife – it was starting to irritate a few of their new family members (namely Rosalie), his constant presence around Alice.

Could he help it? Could he help that he loved her, loved her more than his own life? Could he help that it unnerved him, living in such close quarters with so many of their kind? Could he help that her happiness soothed his troubled mind?

And he couldn't shake that feeling of being watched. It sent another chill down his spine just thinking about it, and he shivered involuntarily. It was probably just Edward monitoring him again. Now _that_ was very unsettling, always having somebody in his head, watching him to make sure that he wouldn't make another bloody mistake.

Alice's voice jolted him out of his mind's wandering. "Jasper, are you all right?" she asked softly, sitting up slowly. Her concern started to leak through, golden eyes watching him anxiously. God, he needed her closer. He needed to touch her flawless skin, trace the outlines of her face…

She must've sensed his anxiety, because she was in the middle of getting to her feet when Carlisle arrived in the doorway, looking straight at Jasper. "Hello, Carlisle," she greeted warily.

"Jasper, can I speak with you?" he asked quietly.

"Of course, Carlisle," Jasper replied with a frown, getting to his feet. "What about?"

"In my office, please, Jasper," Carlisle said, casting a brief glance at the two young women looking worriedly at each other. Uncertainly, Alice tucked herself into his arm, lacing her fingers through his.

"Jasper, what's happening?" she asked softly, even as Carlisle was saying,

"Alice, there's no need for you to come. In fact," he added, "I would prefer if you didn't."

Alice opened her mouth to protest, when Jasper cut her off swiftly with a gentle kiss. "I'll be back very soon, Alice," he murmured. "There's nothing wrong, I promise."

Reluctantly, Alice untangled herself and sat back down on the couch, giving him a wounded, betrayed look before she closed her eyes and her face was set into the petulant expression of 'Fine. I'm just going to spy on you, then.'

Rosalie was frowning suspiciously in their direction as Carlisle closed the office door, revealing the other Cullens waiting inside. Not like it would stop Alice _or_ Rosalie from listening if they wanted to, but it gave them the message that this was a private conversation.

"What is it, Carlisle?" Jasper asked, unconsciously tensing as he felt the emotions coming from his new coven – no, family, he reminded himself – members.

"Please don't do that, Jasper," Carlisle said warningly when Jasper began to try to relax them. "I do not enjoy being toyed with."

There was a subtle double meaning to that phrase, Jasper realized as he stopped. "I'm afraid I don't understand," he told Carlisle, watching as Carlisle sank down into the chair behind his desk.

"You assured me when you first arrived that you had ceased all association with the Mexicans," Carlisle said simply and quietly, eyes fixed on Jasper's face. "You swore that you had had no contact with them in years."

"Yes, that's right," Jasper confirmed warily.

"Then could you explain why there's a couple dozen Mexicans camped out around the area?" Emmett asked. "We had a lovely chat with one of them. Pretty little girl by name of–"

"Little girl?" Carlisle asked sharply, his attention turning from Jasper for the first time since they had started this conversation.

"Not a child," Edward corrected him quietly. "Early to mid-teens. Very small stature, though. She's probably about the age of Renata or Chelsea. She says her name is Maria."

"Her name isn't Maria," Jasper replied simply. "She's too young to be Maria. That is more likely Marisol."

"All debates about names aside, Jasper?" Carlisle said.

Jasper sighed. "I didn't lie to you, Carlisle. I haven't had contact with the Mexicans since I left in 1945." Pausing, he winced as the sudden realization of what was happening hit him. It had finally happened – Maria was going after him. "I have no intentions of ever going back to that. Maria, on the other hand, might not be quite so willing to let me go."

"Are you telling me this is going to turn into a fight?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm afraid that's a very strong possibility," Jasper murmured, taking a deep breath as he tried to figure out a plan. One that didn't involve anybody dying. Especially Alice. He had to get Alice out of the area. It would be so much safer if Maria didn't know about her. But how could he get Alice away from here without arousing her suspicion?

What if Alice had already seen what terrified him most – him being unable to resist Maria? Him returning to Mexico, returning to Maria and leaving her behind despite the pain and the panic that enveloped him at the mere thought?

What if Maria already knew about Alice? What if she already knew that the key to his cooperation was his lovely, perfect wife – the secret to his devotion and loyalty? Would she try to hold Alice hostage to try to assure his return? Would she destroy Alice to eliminate the threat? What if she went to Alice – horrors of horrors! – and told her of all the terrible things he'd done while with Maria? Things that he had sworn to himself never to tell Alice?

What if Alice found out the truth about the man he'd been? What if she couldn't take the reality and she –

"Are you seriously this much of a worrier on a regular basis?" Edward asked incredulously as Jasper got to his feet quickly and went to leave the office.

"Jasper?" Carlisle called.

Jasper turned around, the anxiety continuing to well up inside. A sensation he likened to nausea swept over him, and he forced back the slight moan of distress. "I'm going to see if I can resolve this peacefully," he replied quietly, before he opened the door and Alice flew at him.

"_What_ is going on?" she demanded frantically, grabbing his arm. She was overflowing with a restless, panicky energy, and it made Jasper tense even more as she repeated, "Jasper, _what is going on_?"

"Come with me, Alice," he said softly, pulling her along with him as they went swiftly to their bedroom.

"Jasper –" Alice began to ask a third time, when he sat her down on the bed. "Jasper, I don't like what I'm seeing. Why are you leaving me? You _promised_…" Her voice broke and her hands tightened around his.

And as she looked at him with such heartbroken confusion, he knew. He knew that he couldn't leave her here and go with Maria to keep her safe. She would come with him, or he would die keeping her away from Maria.

Alice's face went blank for a moment and Jasper seized the opportunity to lay her on the bed, pulling her into his arms securely as he buried his face into her neck. "Jasper, I don't understand…" she whispered, her fingers beginning to comb through his hair gently. "Who is she?"

"That's Maria, Lissy," he murmured against her skin, kissing her throat lightly. "The one who turned me…" The one who had commanded his heart, soul and loyalty for almost ninety years – and the one person in this world who terrified him.

Because he knew what she could do to force his hand.

"Why is she here?" Alice asked, still stroking his hair lightly. "Jasper, you're trembling," she said in surprise. "Why are you so scared?"

He couldn't tell her. He couldn't tell her the truth about what was happening.

Sighing, Alice nestled herself in closer, tucking her head beneath his chin as she murmured, "Just promise that you'll come back to me."

"I will _always_ come back to you," he whispered into her ear, before he kissed her hungrily. "Every day of forever."

*~*~*

And with Alice's comforting scent still on him, Carlisle and Edward following behind him, Emmett and Rosalie arguing heatedly in the rear, Jasper walked into the forest to meet Maria for the first time in five years. Alice had reluctantly agreed to stay behind at the house with Esme, despite her best attempts to sway him.

If his heart beat, it would've been pounding.

"Are you okay, Jasper?" Carlisle asked quietly, looking over at him.

"I'll be better when this is over, and Maria is two borders away from Alice," Jasper replied grimly. "And stay out of my head, I'm stressed enough as it is," he added tersely to Edward, who was eyeing him warily.

"_¿Quien es Alicia?_" a teenage boy's voice asked from behind Jasper.

Jasper stopped and whirled around. Standing there among the Cullens was a young man who looked maybe just a little younger than Jasper, dressed in dusty, torn jeans and an old shirt that looked as though it had once been white. "Diego."

"_Si,_" the boy replied with a grin. "Thought you might've forgotten who I was," he continued in Spanish. "Or am I not your favourite anymore, Gaspar?" he asked with slight trepidation. "Maria says that –"

"Diego, enough," came a light laugh, dark in its elegant cheer. "Jasper is going to think you're nothing more than a child!" And then from the shadows, she emerged.

At first glance, she seemed genuinely pleased to have found him. But decades at Maria's side had taught him to trust what went beyond her face. To the coldness behind her perfectly formed smile, the malice in her glittering eyes, the smug confidence in her voice. She thought she had him – she was sure that this wouldn't go so far as to fight. She thought that he would come crawling back to her.

No. She didn't know about Alice. She couldn't. She wouldn't be so confident if she knew how hard it was going to be to separate him from his wife. Unless she already had a plan in place…

He felt the rush of surprised recognition from both Carlisle and Maria at once, then the flash of horror from his creator, and it hit him like a speeding train – he knew how he was going to get out of this. He knew how to get Maria out of there, and peacefully.

Well, relatively peacefully. She was going to pitch a world class fit when she realized how much he was turning on her…

"I suggest that you leave, Maria, right now," Jasper said calmly, quietly as he carefully directed shots of threatening intimidation in her direction. He wouldn't speak it aloud (since he didn't know if any of the Cullens spoke Spanish and would thus understand) and he wouldn't think of the specific details (because then Edward would know, and Edward clung to the rules a little too closely for his liking). But Maria would know what he meant.

She was still shooting cautious glances in Carlisle's direction, sizing up the opposition as she glanced around at the other Cullens. Trying to decide if she'd brought enough with her to even risk a battle with five mature vampires, not knowing how much Jasper had already told them.

"Now, Maria," Jasper repeated, upping the intensity. "I mean it."

She looked at him, scrutinizing his expression. "You wouldn't," she said, somewhat confidently. "You're just as guilty as I am. You're not going to advocate your own execution."

"All I have to do," Jasper replied evenly, "is tell him that it was your idea. I found out by accident. _You_ were the one who made a war tactic out of it. Automatically, that makes you guilty and me innocent." He kept the smirk off his face as he felt Maria's confidence waver with every passing second. "But I could be convinced to keep that under wraps."

She watched him a moment longer. "No. I know why you're doing this." Pausing, Maria turned her attention to her immaculate nails. "And I know what has to be done to stop it."

He felt Edward's tenseness rocket through the roof.

"We ran into Peter and that mate of his," she continued. "He told me everything I needed to know. Not willingly, of course, but it's amazing what people will give up when you have their mate at the mercy of a half-dozen newborns twice her size."

She met his gaze just then, and he realized it just as Edward took off for the house again. "So?" she asked quietly. "What'll your answer be, Jasper? You have two options. You might even be able to convince me to let you take her with us. I can be reasonable when the circumstances call for it."

"I can also be _irrational_ about certain things, Maria," Jasper replied tersely. "No."

She sighed dramatically. "Very well. You leave me no choice. I didn't really want to destroy your little clairvoyant, Jasper – she's quite the find. What was her name again – Alicia? We'd have the whole of the South again in no time with her on our side…" She paused.

And again with the 'we' and 'our'. As if she hadn't been planning on killing him, as if she could ever hope to regain even the tiniest corner of his heart. As if he would ever willingly take Alice into the grimy, bloody, ugly world of the vampire wars, knowing as well as he did that even with her visions on their side, he would be constantly guarding her from attack. The stress alone would probably kill him.

"No, Maria."

And with that final answer, all hell broke loose.

*~*~*

"_Diego!_" Maria shrieked authoritatively as she fought valiantly against Jasper's iron grip, the faintest hint of her internal panic audible in her voice.

Diego seemed frozen, caught between Maria and Jasper – between his superior and his creator. Right about now, Jasper was _very_ glad that he'd treated Diego much better than he had any of the other newborns. Diego wouldn't want to attack him – he'd done neither him nor Marisol any harm. Even on Maria's unmistakable orders, the young Mexican was wavering.

Finally, Diego looked at him, uncertainty and fear clear in his eyes and his emotions. "No," he said, almost inaudible, as he backed away.

"Go," Jasper said in a low voice, still pinning Maria tightly against the tree. "Take Marisol and go."

"_Gracias_," Diego murmured as he flew past them.

"Traitor," Maria hissed at both of them. "Let me go, Jasper!" Jasper merely tightened his grip, to the point that he knew if he tightened any more, he would snap the bones in her arms. And she knew it as well as he did – she'd watched him do it to others many times. "Jasper!"

Carlisle was still hovering at the edge of the battlefield, uncertainty permeating his immediate area. Doubtlessly, he wasn't sure whether he should intervene or not. Edward had gone into a furious fight with the other vampires accompanying Maria, closely followed by Emmett and Rosalie. He was hissing instructions to both of them on the way to dispose of those that they'd already killed.

"Please…" Maria said finally, softly. "Your coven's already decimated my army. I only sent Marisol after your Alicia. I swear."

"And if I let you go?" Jasper asked roughly, aware that the rest of the Cullens had turned their attention to him. "How do I know you won't come back, try again?"

Maria looked at him. "You have the ransom. I'll go back to Monterrey. I'll leave you and your Alicia alone. _Lo juro con mi vida, _Jasper…" _(A/N: SO probably didn't translate that right… She's saying 'I swear on my life'.)_

"Jasper," Alice's soft voice came from beside him, a light hand on his arm. "Let her go."

Maria's eyes flicked away from him to focus on Alice for a moment, and the intense rage that escaped her made Jasper instinctively tighten his grip to avoid any possible harm to Alice.

There was a sickening splintering sound from beneath his hand and Maria let out a cry of pain, Alice exclaiming, "Jasper!"

He released his creator at Alice's rebuke, edging his wife further from Maria's grasp as the young Mexican got to her feet, cradling her wounded arm gingerly. "Go, Maria. Right now. And kindly stay on _your_ side of the Mason-Dixon line from now on."

Maria was breathing hard, clearly still in extreme pain as she hissed through clenched teeth, "You had better hope that the Volturi never catch me."

"Why would I care if the Volturi catch you?" Jasper asked cautiously, still directing Alice further and further away.

"Because if I'm going down, I'm sure as hell taking you with me," Maria spat out before she disappeared. He could hear her shrieking curses at him in a mixture of Spanish and her native dialect for miles.

There was silence in the clearing for a moment, before Rosalie spoke.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call that 'peaceful'…"

"That was fun," Emmett agreed with a grin, brushing back a stray lock of her hair. "Let's never do it again."

Despite themselves, everybody burst out laughing. Everybody, that was, except Jasper. Because he knew that Maria was right. One day, the Volturi _would_ catch her at her dangerous exploits –

And he would be going down with her.


	6. Oregon, 2048

A/N: All right, so this chapter is doubling as an epilogue as well as a 'sneak-peek/lead-in' to the story's unofficial sequel, Dark Secrets. I've finished the prologue and chapter 1 of that story, so look for the first part in the next few days.

Lys – thanks for the heads-up on Jasper's Spanish name. I think I'm still going to keep it as Gaspar, though, just so that it doesn't _look_ like I kept typo-ing his name. I figure it's a logical derivation – if I heard the name Gaspar and had to give the English equivalent, I'd probably think Jasper before Casper – and thus vice versa with Jasper and Maria's mostly-Mexican army. Besides, in the end Gaspar-Jasper-Casper are all the same name, just in different languages.

**_Oregon, 2048_**

Her delight at the smallest of things never ceased to amaze him.

"You're back," she sang out, wrapping her arms around his neck as he caught her up and whirled her around briefly. "Did you bring it?" she asked excitedly, releasing him. "I saw you put it in your pocket, you _must_ have it…"

Jasper laughed as he caught her hand just as it was diving into his pocket. "Patience, Alice, patience," he told her teasingly, delivering a tender kiss when her lower lip jutted out in a cross pout. "Not everything in this world has to be instant gratification, my love."

"I've been waiting _three months_. Do you know how _hard_ it is to wait that long?" she grumbled. "I feel practically naked without it…"

Laughing again as she made another attempt to retrieve the small box, he slid it out, keeping it carefully held captive in his hand. Growling under her breath in exasperation, Alice bounced up and down in barely-controlled excitement, hand held out expectantly.

"Alice Whitlock," he began to say affectionately, smiling as she managed to restrain the squeal. "You have made the last 100 years of my life heaven on Earth. I love you more every day, more than I ever dreamed one person could feel. You are my sun, moon and stars, and without you, nothing matters." His smile bursting into a grin as Alice nearly exploded with love, reaching up on tiptoes to kiss him, he opened the box and pulled out her present. "Will you let me try to make the next 100 years even better than the last?" he asked, carefully sliding her new wedding ring onto her finger.

"Oh, do you _even_ have to ask?!" Alice squealed, throwing herself into his arms and kissing him repeatedly.

"Yes," he replied, the answer murmured into her neck. "And I _do_ require an answer."

Alice laughed and kissed him again. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she whispered into his ear. "My turn."

Jasper laughed again and set her down.

"Okay, so I don't have a huge speech prepared," Alice said. Her eyes were sparkling as she put the new band onto his finger. "Is saying 'I love you' ever going to be enough?"

"Darling, you don't even have to say it," Jasper replied, brushing her hair away from her eyes. They had just hunted earlier in the morning, so her eyes were a warm butterscotch. But he could still see that little tint of red, a colour so faint, he wasn't even sure that she herself could see it. The mark of how she'd spent her last few moments as a human… It was more noticeable in red eyes, it was true. Those ones he'd left behind in Mexico, whose eyes always seemed to glow like a newborn, even after a century of immortal life…

He would never tell her that he knew part of her forgotten past. That even if he didn't know who, where, when, why… he did know the how. And the mere thought was enough to make him sick. Some things Alice was better off – happier – not knowing.

"Happy anniversary, Lissy," he murmured, delivering one last, lingering kiss to her lips.

"Happy anniversary, Jazz," she replied softly. "You _do_ remember our 100th anniversary isn't until _next_ year, right?" she asked with a smile. "And it's in March, not August?"

"Then I'll get you a necklace to match in March," Jasper replied with a laugh. "I didn't think you were going to wait another year for a new ring. Besides, that's the wedding anniversary," he added. "Today is the 100th anniversary of our first meeting, and that's the more important date."

"My _God_, where do you come up with these things?" Alice asked in astonishment, kissing his cheek. "Did they, like, have schools on romancing girls in the 1800s?"

Jasper laughed. "No, but my mother taught me very well." He leaned in to kiss her yet again, then frowned as she sighed and directed him to her cheek. "What?"

"We're about to be interrupted," she grumbled, turning around just as the door opened and both Rosalie and Renesmee entered, quickly followed by Esme and Bella.

"Let. Me. See," Rosalie ordered.

Laughing, Alice held out the hand with her new ring on it.

"But it's just like the old one," Renesmee said in slight disappointment.

"I know," Alice said, deep satisfaction in her voice. "That's why I had to wait three months. Not many jewelers can still make rings in 1940s style."

Jasper laughed and joined his brothers and Carlisle at the door.

"Lucky," Emmett said darkly. "Alice is happy just to get a new ring. Rosalie wants an entire wedding."

"What, you aren't used to it yet after 113 years?" Edward asked teasingly. "She's demanded an entire wedding at least once a decade since 1935."

"I still keep _hoping_…"

"Wow, she's really excited over that ring, isn't she?" Carlisle commented.

Jasper rolled his eyes. "She's been fretting over the old set breaking for fifty years. But she wouldn't let me even _look _at getting new ones until the others actually broke." He looked back over at Alice.

She was in the middle of a vision, a frown of confusion on her face. No sooner had she come back to reality than had she gone, sat down on the bed and returned to her visions, her frown deepening as the frustration kept building.

"Alice?" Carlisle asked warily.

She held up a hand and shook her head, brow still furrowed in concentration.

"It's the Volturi," Edward murmured. "She sees them coming here, but she can't figure out why. Aro's using the limitations in her visions to keep the reason hidden."

"Why would they be coming?" Emmett asked. "Aro was just here a few years ago to check on Renesmee."

"Something major must've happened in the South," Edward said quietly. "Aro's come with the guard. Demetri, Felix, Alec, Jane… they're all with him. It's the only thing I can think of that would merit such a large group."

"But then why would they be coming here?" Emmett asked again.

"_If I'm going down, I'm sure as hell taking you with me,"_ Maria's voice hissed inside his mind.

Edward turned his attention to Jasper. "You don't think…" he started to say.

"It makes sense," Jasper replied quietly. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"But you haven't done anything," Edward said. "Nothing –" Then he inhaled sharply, simultaneously with Alice screaming,

"NO!"

"They are, aren't they?" Jasper asked, resigned to the inevitable truth that he'd always known would happen one day.

"But you haven't done anything," Edward repeated, his tone bewildered. As he paused, Jasper went back to Alice, pulling her into his arms securely. Alice moaned in distress, burying her face into his shoulder.

"What's going on?" Rosalie demanded, turning around to look at Edward.

Edward was still trying to find the words when Jasper answered her quietly, rocking his wife comfortingly.

"The Volturi are coming to execute me."


End file.
